The 20-Something Marriage Divide

Kay Hymowitz of the Manhattan Institute asserts that women in their 20's should seek stability in marriage before childbirth. WSJ's Wendy Bounds asks why.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... the sun and wind in the new teen moms full with a rise out of wedlock birth story for Americans in their twenties ... what will be the societal costs for ramifications to join us to skate on with his co author of not yet that that that and also delayed marriage enemy Act and a fellow at the Manhattan ... Institute a think tank ... their time and things for being here and a list to start with some statistics the way this appetite ... teen pregnancies dropping precipitously since the nineteen nineties ... but not so for all unmarried twenty somethings get is that that's right so we seen a decline in teen pregnancy and about forty seven percent ... on since nineteen one nineteen ninety one ... in that same period though we've seen the NYSE and on pregnancy at prices that Rob Barry ... among twenty somethings who married twenty something ... funny about twenty seven percent ... rise in group a to his Odyssey on the team right he's saying not necessarily good news of a twenty something from Bernanke didn't do that you save for college educated women is delayed marriage has been actually a very successful model ... but not so from large swaths of Bill America why do you say that ... well ... the former college educated them and it's worked out that they spend their twenties and ... more keen on going to school ... time developing a ransom any ... time figuring out who they are ... five very aged married to say how similar it time to everybody else about twenty seven for ... women and twenty nine for men ... but what's ... good for women who are not college educated and less college and rapid those without high school degree and let's say your to call it ... is that they are continuing to ... increase their lead to marriage but not their needs childcare so ... I'm Aer I now that marrying about two years later after on average ... and aam then there are having to ... pay whatever the case is that you think ... so ... most of these relationships are the only this many young women are actually happening at the time the night ... but the last ten to be very unstable about two fifths of the breakup of the first five years of the child ... of life that's ... three times the rate of married couples ... so those ... those women and ... mothers also ... go on typically to another relationship where they may well have another child of another set of ... I mean you step by step grandparents and siblings and on and on ... ahh and thus range and that and creating certain instability in children's lives ... which I researchers are now pretty definite that is associated with a lot of ... problems for kids Proms in school emotional problems ... and problems that when it comes to marrying and having children themselves although we do know in America not the least take many different forms and easy ... you not to think that marrying someone who's gone wrong person ... in your twenties just because you are want to have a child ... might not ... be the right thing right ... well look we wanna make sure that Dom ... both kids and I ... really think that that is ... that people are not going to the just married because I think they're supposed to be getting her brother are thinking through ... seriously and a great deal mindfulness ... about who it is they're going to be with the rest of their lives and raising their children with what we see in some more of a kind of draft that kind of lack of mindfulness about ... these decisions and high where we are women find themselves with men ... when they are not committed to your feeling on content ... and happy children with has to say what I know it's a little tricky to me when you think you're in a note we know that when its prime childbearing years happened to be in the twenties and it can and does get sick of the harder I when you're in your thirties how do you square these two things ... well I nobody is suggesting that they wait till then for her to sing them to marry and have children I don't know that that model really works for this ... particular group ... I what I think we need to see them better ... not all non is ... perhaps girl and her its not any ... team inherent ... I'm not anybody who doesn't wanna ... be wearing it all but for the school are really seriously considering having children ... they also are considering whether ... the children laugh ... and whether those relationships are worth ... aam pursuing foreign on foreign lifelong commitment ... you've written and said that marriage is now a capstone not a cornerstone of becoming the young adult ... it could be a good thing to me that you say not necessarily the know it is a good thing for college educated women in sport very very well they have this long period mid twenties where they are developing their own identity and I'm finding their place in the workplace ... of but for what is your not going to be on that professional track ... who are not going to be in turning accounting store ... or on ... a having a job at Morgan Stanley or something like that ... the mystery is very different they often find themselves ... wanting a child of the younger inks and women who are on this on the track ... so we have to be speaking to them as well ... when we think of marriage is the capstone that is something that comes after all these marvelous ... achievement found that one is ... we are not speaking to this age group and that this particular demographic group certainly there were many of new American women who are in their twenties those who are ... wise enough to make their own decisions and to know whether that with the right person ... and decide when they're ready to have a child ... while surely they are I can see get what we ... do then now all the facts about the outcomes for children ... we know that they took over and fry in what manner certain stability in airlines I would try to that we want to encourage our young people to create ... of families that are going to use as stable as possible now you know things happen ... I know there are no assurances in this world ... nor are there any assurances that married couples were always going to be ... a successful parent on his or her until very high and any success and the fire is out there but the average what we know from ... I just two years decades we lived a ... the children to better when they are growing up with their merry parents ... and Scott interesting studies were Ian weakling a study from ... all over I mean the sociologists and economists have been looking at Alcatel outcomes for very long time now ... do you worry old and they were sort of add your advocated the only way to be successful or to be happy to get married as quickly as possible ... and have a house that is possible the people want a sense that way aam and we are not to have or not it by any means suggesting that we should go back to around ... twenty where people know that you know got married and nineteen or twenty on although ... some ... some couples will be successful doing that ... um no that's not the point of our fourth-quarter bar report is to say ... I'm that there should be an uncertain outlook learning mindful in some doubt in the future that the child's future ... and to try to create the most stable future for that child to possibly can ... and that means ... that means getting married I listed this in this country at this time ... on those ... relationships are much more stable ... a single woman in her twenties defined by the very definition of an unstable ... she's going to be looking for another part of a single he'll take many ... single women could just be happy being alone ... I think that's unlikely ... I think most I know all of the market who don't want to marry and all the of twenty oh one and I and I necessarily get a leg up okay so maybe they'll be making difficult decisions but ... I think all of the day and all of the ... survey research suggests that ... I've that marriage most most that eighty percent of young people say they want to be married aren't very provocative information Charles Bock a lot of debate the OT name of the report does not get the benefits and costs of delay ... marriage in America I think the one thing we can all agree on is that